New Volvo ES90 electric saloon gearing up for 5 March reveal

Volvo will pull the covers off its ES90 electric saloon on 5 March, the maker has confirmed. As part of the usual drip-fed reveal process, Volvo has issued a number of darkened teaser images, as well as details on the car’s new supercomputer that will allow the ES90 to “continuously evolve and improve over time”.

A successor to the petrol, diesel and hybrid-powered S90, the ES90 will be electric only – following the firm’s naming convention launched on the EX90 a couple of years ago. We expect the new saloon to share much of its platform and hardware tech with the flagship SUV, which itself has only just arrived in UK showrooms.

The first we saw or heard of the ES90 came after an image was shared on Volvo’s employee intranet system, showing a car covered by a sheet and surrounded by workers at one of the brand’s factories in China. The banner above the car read: ‘Volvo Cars V551 First VP Car Celebration’ – V551 being the new model’s internal code name, and VP signifying this is a verification prototype.

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According to the Swedish motoring magazine Teknikens Varld, Volvo’s Goran Larsson, technical lead for the V551 project, said: “VP car construction takes us one step closer to delivering a new, finished car to our customers. As a real car we can touch and use it for tests, it plays a decisive role in the development process.”

We’ve since been treated to a number of teaser images, showing the car in varying states of undress. One confirms the ES90 name alongside a shadowy silhouette – revealing an almost fastback-like profile and shortened bootlid. Another couple show the car from a low-down front three-quarter angle, as well as directly from above. The most recent is confirmation that the ES90 will inherit the EX90’s exposed LIDAR unit on the roof, suggesting it’ll be delivered with semi-autonomous drive tech built-in.   

We can’t decipher much more from the various teaser pictures, but our exclusive images preview how the new model could look. It uses a similar design language and flush front end to Volvo’s existing electric models, and we expect the ES90 to also inherit a bold set of ‘Thor’s Hammer’ LED lights and sharp detailing.

The ES90 will sit on the same SPA2 platform as the EX90, with the saloon likely to measure almost five metres in length. That means it’ll sit between the old S90 and the (not-for-UK) long-wheelbase version of the same car. However, due to the new model’s electric-specific architecture, we can expect space in the back seats of the ES90 to surpass that offered in its predecessor – allowing greater scope for that sloping, more aerodynamic roofline.

We can look to the saloon’s SUV sibling for battery and motor configurations, too. That means the ES90 will probably be launched with a single 107kWh battery, and dual motors for all-wheel drive. The ES90’s sleek shape could mean a range of 400 miles or more, with later single-motor models offering greater efficiency and range.

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Volvo has said the ES90 will be a “software-defined car” that is designed to “continuously evolve and improve through core computing technology, constant connectivity and data”. It will use a ‘dual NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin configuration’ – apparently making it the most powerful Volvo ever built in terms of core computing capability. The set-up can make 508 trillion operations per second.

Rivals for the ES90 include the BMW i5 and Mercedes EQE, as well as the new Audi A6 e-tron. Expect a raft of Chinese brands to benchmark the Volvo; Nio, for example, has bold plans for Europe based upon its innovative battery-swap tech.

An estate version of the ES90 – presumably called EV90 – will join the range later, offering all the same specs but with a bigger, more family-friendly boot.

While the S90 is no longer sold in the UK, a spokesperson said availability for the new saloon would depend on “local market conditions” and “market desire” – refusing to state we’d also be denied the ES90 when production starts later this year.

Elsewhere, Volvo remains committed to an EV future, despite recently adjusting its EV-only deadline by confirming it will continue to sell hybrid models beyond 2030. It says “90 to 100 per cent” of its cars will be electrified by the end of the decade.

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